Girl found living with monkeys in Indian forest

08/04/2017

A young Indian girl sits on a bed at a hospital in this image taken from video in Bahraich, northern India on April 6. Indian police are reviewing reports of missing children from recent years to try to identify the girl who was found in a forest with a group of monkeys. (AP)

Indian police are reviewing reports of missing children to try to identify a girl who was found living in a forest with a group of monkeys.

The girl, believed to be 10 to 12 years old, was unable to speak, was wearing no clothes and was emaciated when she discovered in January and taken to a hospital in Bahraich, a town in Uttar Pradesh state in northern India.

She behaved like an animal, running on her arms and legs and eating food off the floor with her mouth, said DK Singh, chief medical superintendent of the government-run hospital. After treatment, she has begun walking normally and eating with her hands. “She is still not able to speak, but understands whatever you tell her and even smiles,” Singh said.

Some woodcutters spotted the girl roaming with monkeys, police officer Dinesh Tripathi told The Associated Press on Thursday. They alerted police. “They said the girl was naked and was very comfortable in the company of monkeys. When they tried to rescue the girl, they were chased away by the monkeys,” the officer said. (AP)